Seatrade award for Sarbh

Describing him as "a leading figure in the global container terminals business,” Christo­pher Hayman, chairman, Seat­rade Communications Limited, presented the Seatrade Outstanding Achie­ve­­ment Award 2008 to Capt Jimmy Sarbh on October 9, 2008 at Dubai’s International Hotel, Festival City.

Sarbh, who now runs his own ports consultancy business was a central figure in building up P & O Ports’ dominant position in the subcontinent, helping secure, build and operate port assets worth around $ 1.3 billion, notes the citation.

Over seven years 1990-97 Sarbh was said to have masterminded the expanding presence of P & O Ports in South Asia which included the Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal in New Bombay, the Chennai Container Terminal, the Mundra International Container Terminal, the Bengal Port Limited in Calcutta, the Qasim International Terminal in Pakistan and the South Asia Gateway Terminal in Colombo, Ceylon. His efforts as founding president of the Indian Private Ports and Terminals Association, an institution set up to help Indian private ports offer cost effective and internationally comparable services to their customers, was also appreciated by Seatrade.

Jimmy Sarbh: paradigm shift in port management

The Seatrade Middle East and Indian Subcontinent Awards recognize the "desire to excel and be seen at the forefront of technological progress” in these regions. An international magazine which covers ports and shipping all over the world, Seatrade sponsors different awards for different regions like the US, Singapore and East Asia, Britain, Europe, China etc. All except two of the annual awards are voted on by readers. But the Seatrade Outstanding Achievement Awardee and the Seatrade Lifetime Achievement Awardee are personalities selected by a panel of prominent persons in the trade from among those shortlisted by the magazine’s high command, Sarbh informed Parsiana in the course of a telephone conversation.

Congratulating the short-listed firms "for having embraced best practice and set a shining example to others in the industry,” the introduction to the awards notes, "The world may have wobbled on its financial axis but global trade remains a constant imperative for social advancement. The safe carriage and handling of seaborne goods, without risk to human life or the environment, remains an essential prerequisite for that trade.”

Seatrade: A maga­zine for mariners

Sarbh says he was "a bit surprised and happy” when he was intimated of the award. "In life one gets awards rather late. In India you are never recognized for the extensive work you do to bring about maritime change... We (at P&O) changed the paradigm of the way containers are handled in India.”

India born Sarbh began his seafaring career as a cadet in 1973. By 1987 he had assumed his first command on car carrier Oeden, records the citation. He began his shore career with P & O India from Australia where he had migrated in 1990. From 1995 he was stationed in India and in 1997 was appointed chairman and managing director of P & O Ports’ Bombay based South Asia Middle East Region. In 2005 Sarbh resigned from P & O as he disagreed with the commercial direction of the firm. A year later the company was bought out by DP World, records Seatrade.

Sarbh’s outspokenness is appreciated on the international conference circuit. Rearing race horses, collecting contemporary Indian art and contributing his energy and expertise for the blind are Sarbh’s other avocations.